WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton on an India tour; to gather insights for a smarter app

Acton was in New Delhi on Friday and met union minister for electronics and information technology Ravi Shankar Prasad, who described him as a "fine mind in the field of Information technology."Surabhi Agarwal | ET Bureau | Updated: February 24, 2017, 18:22 IST

Image Source: Ravi Shankar Prasad/TwitterWhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton is currently on a tour of India with the aim to gather insights from people about how WhatsApp can contribute to India in a more prominent way.

Acton was in New Delhi on Friday and met union minister for electronics and information technology Ravi Shankar Prasad, who described him as a "fine mind in the field of Information technology."

The insights could go into bettering the service and increasing its utility for millions of Indians. “India is a very important country to us, and we're proud to have 200 million people who use WhatsApp to connect with their friends, family and communities," said Acton in a statement.

He added that the company builds every WhatsApp feature to be simple, reliable, and secure, and this vision is in line with what Digital India promises to achieve. "We will continue to invest so we can help more people across India, and we hope to contribute more to India's vision for digital commerce in the future,” he added.

Acton co-founded WhatsApp with Jan Koum of WhatsApp eight year ago on February 24, 2009. Acton, famously was rejected for a job by Facebook but in February 2014, he sold the messaging app to Facebook for $19 billion.

Prasad said that he conveyed to Acton how programs like Digital India are changing the face of India and making Indians technologically empowered and creating new opportunities.

"I also appreciated the good role of platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp are playing in the field of Digital empowerment. He deeply appreciated all this and assured of more involvement of local language" Prasad added.